Death Guard at the Grim Dice Tournament

Hello!

Been a little while since I've updated here, and since last time I wrote about my Death Guard toughing it out in tenth edition, I thought I'd continue with a brief overview of the Grim Dice Tournament, and maybe some bonus Death Guard content at the end!

The event itself was a pretty standard 2k one-dayer with about 12 players. I took a list featuring Mortarion running up the middle and a series of small units to try and play the missions, including three Blight-haulers, three units of mostly melee Plague Marines, two lots of Blightlords, a single Plagueburst Crawler (if I had more I would definitely have taken more), Rhino, Bloat Drone, Tallyman and a load of cultitst and poxwalker chaff. At time of writing the balance update has just come out so this list now would have an extra 250 odd points and a powerful new army rule, so I'm well aware I was playing as the underdogs!

First game was against Tim with Chaos Daemons. It was a high scoring win for the Death Guard, 93-89, only a few points in it. The army did what it was supposed to do, spreading out and hoovering up points, while the Daemons slowly murdered everything, but couldn't quite catch up.

Second game was against Robin and his Orks, started fairly even but Mortarion got beaten up badly by Mozrog Skragbad (which I wasn't too sad about too be honest, that guy should be pretty beefy!) and the game went drastically downhill from there. I think the final result was 93-53 to the Orks. My opponent here was a younger member of the community, and I think it's worth saying in case he reads this, I was impressed with both his tactical ability and his Orky spirit!

Last game was against CJ and his Necrons. This one went downhill pretty quickly, Mortation got stuck on the terrain then died fast, while the rest of my army was unable to compete with the 'crons either in their damage or their defences. This game above the others really highlighted the flaws in the index for me - they just can't deal with heavy firepower or really tough targets. Or at least they couldn't - the balance pass might have given them a big boost there. I don't remember the exact score but it was 90-40 ish.

In the end I managed to get roughly in the middle with the highest score of the one-winners. A little disappointing to have the games get progressively more unbalanced as the day went on, but I was ultimately happy to have won a game here. Looking back now on the day of the balance update it does throw it somewhat starkly into focus, the list I would have taken now would have been significantly larger and dramatically more dangerous. Regardless of results, I still had fun, it's always nice to have a day throwing dice!

And as for that Death Guard bonus content - I had a bit of a desire to have a big stupid tank to go with the collection, so I dipped into the Heresy range for this one:

The Typhon Heavy Siege Tank! Kind of like a big Plagueburst Crawler right? In any case, it was a lot of fun to paint up a big dirty rust bucket of a warmachine, using all the weathering techniques I've picked up over the years.

The Lord of Virulence approves! Now I need to play a game with legends allowed. Luckily most of my opponents seem to be pretty cool. Legends let legends use legends! Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and stay safe out there!

Leicester City GT report

Hello!

Over the weekend I went to the Leicester City GT, and I had a blast! It was the biggest tournament I'd been to with around 250 players (plus a smaller AoS event running alongside) and the first sizable one since the 40k Grand Tournament at Warhammer World back in early 2020. So I have been looking forward to this one for a while.

For this post I'm going to briefly talk about my list then give an overview of each of the games, then some thoughts at the end. I'll go ahead and spoil the result now - I lost all of them. No wooden spoon however, I did rank at the top of all the people with no wins. I was never going to win so I'm not super disappointed, but of course it would be nice to come somewhere safely in the middle - but more on all that later.

I had a real tough time decided on what to take with me, as I was torn between fun, power and convenience. I had initially intended to go Orks, but Tyranids would be a much more 'meta' option and Death Guard would have been much easier to move around on a tray! In the end I did go with the Snakebites, taking a similar list to the one I took against JP recently, but with some adjustments made in the name of logistics. Less Boyz, more Toyz.

HQ: Mozrog Skragbad (Warlord, Surly as a Squiggoth), Weirdboy (Da Jump, Fists of Gork)

Troops: 10 Beast Snagga Boyz, 3x 15 Boyz (Powerklaw), 2x 10 Gretchin

Elites: 8 Burna Boyz/2 Spannas (1 Rokkit Launcha, 1 Kustom mega blasta), 3 Mega Nobz (Big Krumpaz)

Fast Attack: 5 Squighog Boyz (Bomb Squig)

Heavy Support: Kill Rig (Frazzle, Squiggly Curse, Scorched Gitbones), Squiggoth, Battlewagon (Deffroller)

Lord of War: Gorkanaut (Big Krumpaz)

Game one was against Stephen and his Necrons. No Silent King, but he did have the Void Dragon, a load of Heavy Destroyers and many many Canoptek units. The mission was Abandoned Sanctuaries.

Ultimately the game was decided by a poor decision to attack against Spyders first (with ultimately little effect as the one I killed came back) rather than the Void Dragon, allowing him to attack, ignore invulnerable saves, and down Mozrog Skragbad. Before then I think I was right in the game but I wasn't able to come back from failing to kill the big guy. Highlights of the game before that were probably the Squighog Boyz and Mozrog battering Wraiths. It ended 100-53 to the Necrons.

Game two was Data Scry-salvage vs Aarron and his cool jungly Tau; green suits, blue Kroot and loads of vegetation on the bases. No vehicles, just loads of suits.

I felt like I played this one well - I scored early points and made him work to take out my big targets for Bring It Down. Sadly it was a tough match up and I think it fell apart when the Gorkanaut made a charge out of the Tellyporta into the Broadsides and only killed a couple of drones. With that they stepped back and Kauyoned it to death. I made good progress chewing through the chaff but the Suits and their drones were just tough to deal with. This one ended 78-55 to the Tau.

Game three was the first of a pair of Dark Angels players. Rob had a cool mix of Death, Raven and green wings. Big blobs of Terminators and Black Knights supported by, among other things, plasma Inceptors and the Land Speeder Vengeance. Mission was Death and Zeal.

If I'm honest with myself I played this one very poorly, going half arsed on attempting to take out the Terminators in the middle vs ignoring them and focusing on the corner objectives. I did manage to control the primary points pretty well but I just fed more units than necessary into the grinder in the middle. In spite of this, it was the closest game of the lot, with Mozrog coming back from the dead to kill off a couple of characters once the Terminator blob had stomped off to secure a corner, and needing Azrael to fail a charge on a Weirdboy in order to hold my home objective in turn 5. Sadly for me he did get in and cut down the psyker with ease, a four point swing ending the game 78-76 in favour of the Dark Angels. 

Game four was more Dark Angels, this time almost full Deathwing. My opponent, Reg, had a psyker support from Librarians and an Inquisitor, plus a couple of sneaky phobos units, and then about 40 Terminators.Tide of Conviction was the mission, giving opportunity to grab some Good Bitz early.

I did get off to a strong start, but the grind eventually started to favour the Angels and their ObSec Terminators. I did manage to kill a decent number (15-20 of them I think) but I didn't have the staying power to hang with them. Highlight was the Gorkanaut exploding to kill a whole load of stuff on both sides, including the wounded Squiggoth. This game was a bit slower than the others, the only one I didn't finish, so ended 48-38 to the DAngels on turn three. There were still some opportunities for me to score but I don't think I was ever likely to overcome the deficit with the units I had left.

So onto the last game, it was Secure Missing Artefacts against Gerard and his Astra Militarum (using the 8th ed book at the time of playing the game). A classic Guard gunline with a load of Leman Russes, artillery in the back and plenty of squads of meat shields up front.

Once again, this was a tough match up - 8th Ed Guard may be a bit underwhelming in 9th but if there's one thing they can do it's blast Orks off the table. I felt like I was in a strong position in turn 2/3 when I made it into melee and tagged some tanks, including getting the Squighog Boyz into a Demolisher Commander, but those metal boxes were just too tough and in the end I was wiped out, bar a few Grots and the Weirdboy. A fairly close scoreline saw the Guard take the win 86-75.

And there you have it. A few close ones but ultimately five losses is five losses. Like I said at the start I still had a great time, all my games were fun and my opponents courteous, but still I feel it could have gone better! I think I had two games that I lost because I played badly, and three games where I lost because my army was 'bad'. All my games went through a similar pattern - turn one and two the Orks spread out everywhere and caused some damage, then in turn three they pretty much all died and I didn't have enough to scrape enough points at the end. 

As much fun as it is playing Orks, bringing some big stompy stuff and lots of Boyz, and having an adorable red squig in my corner, I kind of got tired of that second half collapse and then not really being able to play the game at the end. I was particularly disappointed with my big models on this regard - the Gorkanaut and the Kill Rig in particular did not do the damage I would have hoped for once they reached melee. They, and everything else, really struggled to get through any reasonably hard targets. The Squighog Boyz were probably my best unit, but they still failed to make their mark against most of the stuff they were set upon. I have a lot of respect for the people who do make Orks work - notably the player who came second overall was running them, but it definitely feels like the 'classic' builds are suffering at the moment.

Now, with that little whinge out of the way, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. Even if you aren't a full on competitive player, these kind of events are still great fun and I definitely recommend it should you get the chance. Stay safe out there!

Crusade Battle Report - Tyranids vs Necrons

Hello!

I've been unable to play any 40k for a little while (since the Narrative Wargamer battle report was filmed in fact) due to work, being poorly and other stuff, so I've been eagerly awaiting getting back to the table. Luckily I had two games to play in the Grim Dice Crusade League second round, so a bit of 50 power level Crusade fun to ease me back in. The first of these was the mission Growing Faith from the Wars of Faith mission pack - four objectives outside of the deployment zones and a single 'icon' in each with a growing radius of faith effects (which I have yet to use).

As mentioned in the previous Crusade update, I've been running Hive Fleet Goliath (as Behemoth) for this, and in the first round I'd managed two losses. Not ideal, but I had picked up a few upgrades on my units thanks to the Tyranid Crusade rules offering XP bonuses and penalties for taking the right units for different stages of an attack. I'm currently in the Invasion stage so I'm incentivised to bring the vanguard organisms. Since the initial 25 power level games I'd added in a blob of Termagants and a couple of big beasties:

HQ: Broodlord (Catalyst, Ymgarl Factor, Heightened Senses), Tervigon (adrenal glands, toxin sacs, Onslaught, massive scything talons, The Maw-claws of Thyrax)

Troops: 10 Gargoyles, 3 Warriors (boneswords, deathspitters, venom cannon, adrenal glands), 20 Termagants (Devourers)

Elites: 10 Genestealers (Infestation Node)

Flyer: Hive Crone

Facing me was Mark aka DaBear with Sautekh Dynasty Necrons. He had three units of Warriors, a couple of little Scarab swarms, a pair of Heavy Destroyers and a big unit of Skorpekh Destroyers. They were led to battle by an Overlord and a Skorpekh Lord

As part of the mission rules we had the option of taking a Paragon upgrade on one of our characters or improve the effects of our icons. We both chose the Paragon, which meant the Tervigon had exploding sixes to hit in melee, and the Skorpekh Lord was going to ignore some damage once per round.

Turn one fell to the Tyranids, and we were off...

The bugs moved up to secure some objectives and trouble the Necrons in the left flank 'castle'. The forward deploying Genestealers lined up a short charge through the ruins, while the Crone and some Onslaughted Termagants got some shots at the Warriors over on that side. Thanks mostly to the Drool Cannon the unit was reduced to three models, and a speculative shot from the Crone's Tentaclids removed one of the Lokhust Heavy Destroyers. I'm so used to them being a bit rubbish from previous versions I didn't expect that at all!

The Genestealers rolled poorly so were only able to make it to the front 'rank' of Scarabs and one of the Skorpekhs - which promptly died from the Plasmacyte, leaving me with not many 'stealers to actually fight with - failing to even destroy the Scarab screen! They were however now in the way so mission kind of accomplished. Overall a decent first turn though.

The Necrons returned fire, putting some damage on the Crone and whittling down the Termagant blob (though some good saves kept the unit on the field). Then melee...

The genestealers took a battering between shooting and then melee, with the Skorpekhs finishing them off with their reap-blades. So far in this league those Genestealers have been pretty poor, even by the relatively low standards of 'stealers in today's 40k.

Going into turn two I was holding some objectives so I got points. I decided to completely switch targets and swarm the right flank 'castle instead, with the Crone turning around in hover mode and blasting the other Heavy Destroyer away, as well as melting some Warriors with goo. The Broodlord then powered up in melee to gut the second Warrior squad in the ruin, leaving the Tervigon nothing to fight, while the now replenished to almost full strength Termagant brood swarmed the objective (and some Scarabs). Again a good turn, keeping the 'crons pinned back.

Necron turn two saw them move out from the castle and reposition the Overlord and Warriors with the Veil of Darkness - they gunned down two of my Tyranid Warriors while a little damage was also put out elsewhere. I was way ahead on points by this stage but all those Skorpekhs looks pretty threatening.

Going into turn three and I decided the direct approach was best. The two big beasties set their sights on the Destroyers while the Broodlord set about clearing the right flank. Gargoyles and spawned Termagants held back to cover my objectives and ensure the points stayed in my favour. I also threw the remaining Warrior forward to get in the way and maybe cause some trouble - though he was swiftly gunned down after.

It turns out the Tervigon is now really good in melee (boosted with the Maw Claws relic for an extra attack and reroll wounds) and she battered the remaining Skorpekh Destroyers, leaving none left for the Crone!

In Necron turn there wasn't much they could do to take back ground, but they could certainly take some kills! The warrior fell, the Crone was wounded further and finally the Skorpekh Lord charged in to chop it out of the sky.

Nid turn four, the Broodlord finished his clean up job around the right, while the Tervigon bellowed a challenge to the Skorpekh Lord! Paragon vs Paragon. The big bug got three wounds in, but the Necron's invulnerable save passed twice, then the Paragon ability kicked in to ignore the 2D3 damage the single wound would have been! In return the Tervigon took six damage, leaving her on a still mighty 11 wounds.

Necron turn four saw a bit of a retreat from the Lord, a bit of shooting at the big bug, while the remaining Warriors nuked the Gargoyle brood.

Turn five revolved around that dual once again! The Tervigon got three wounds through again, and again the Skorpekh Lord passed two saves and ignored the third to stay alive, again carving into the Tervigon.

In the last action of the game the Necrons tried to take the beast down, the warriors and Overlord had a go, but eventually it was brought low by, of all things, an exploding Scarab. Still, a victory for the Tyranids!

As is often the case in Crusade games, once side started running away with the points, but the other still had plenty of experience and kills to play for, and led to a pretty epic confrontation at the end. Luckily for both of us, no battle scars were picked up, but I did get a fair bit of XP from my agendas (which were essentially to kill stuff). The Tervigon picked up a fair chunk, while I assigned Marked for Greatness to the Crone - both of which levelled up in their first game. The Tervigon got a roll on the Synapse Creature table, becoming a Psychic Aberration, allowing it to use the Power of the Hive Mind stratagem for free to cast an extra power, while I rolled for a weapon enhancement for the Crone's Drool Cannon, which became 'Master Worked' for a slightly filthy +1 damage.

Anyway, I had a good time, hope you enjoyed reading, and stay safe out there.